The Miami Heat were in flux coming off a tough last week of play prior to beating Sacramento this past Monday. With the rumblings of needing a shakeup somewhere prior to that though, there was a move made to coach Spoelstra’s starting lineup and therefore, his entire rotation.
Finding himself out of the rotation just a week or few ago, it seems, Max Strus has now received a major bump in playing time. That “bump” came with a major promotion too.
To be fair, he’s seen it all before he got there though.
He’s gone from being, seemingly, out of the rotation when Victor Oladipo and Markieff Morris came back, to on the edges as the team tried to figure out the correct balance of everything, to now being entrenched as the fifth starter in the typical starting lineup that features Kyle Lowry, Bam Adebayo, P.J. Tucker, and his middle finger bro, Jimmy Butler.
While things have worked out for the best over the last two contests, you still can’t say it was the absolute right move yet, shuffling Duncan Robinson to a reserve role, however, you can say this.
Things look a bit more electric out there for everyone when Strus is on the floor with the starters and vice versa. With that, here is the reason why the change seems to have been made, for now at least.
Miami Heat: ‘Multipleness’ Is Why Max Strus Is A Starter Now
When you think about Max, he is an elite shooter. However and unlike Duncan Robinson, Strus excels at getting his range shot off from any number of positions.
Whereas Duncan really excels at being a spot-up guy, running off of screens, or the dribble handoff action, Max Strus is capable of doing all of that plus adding in a bit more off the bounce shooting as well. That speaks to the difference in total versatility as well though.
When it comes to the overall ability in their games, as well, Strus has more to offer than Duncan does.
Where Max is also an elite shooter, he can also offer you the ability to create off the bounce, attack the basket regularly, and even finish strong or over the top when he gets there.
Though Duncan has shown capable, especially as of recent, to finish more shots that aren’t three-point looks, you, simply, trust Max’s athletic gifts more in that aspect of the game. So, here’s how you would put it plainly.
Max Strus is in the starting lineup now because it allows him to be more multiple.
That, not only, allows him to be more multiple, but it allows everyone else around him in that group to be more effectively multiple as well, as Strus’s threat to do something other than just shoot the range shot is that much greater.
Miami Heat: The Situation Is A Win-Win For Duncan Robinson And Max Strus
The part about Max being multiple is a strange one too though. For some reason, he doesn’t typically get to all of his game when he has played with the second unit, well, not as much as he does or has when playing with the starting guys.
For some reason, Strus just posts in a corner or along a wing and watches Tyler Herro as a reserve, waiting on an opportunity to sink the deep shot. However, he can help the Miami Heat out more by getting to his other stuff.
Max is an elite shooter and though he isn’t as elite a shooter as Robinson is once he gets going, he’s still elite. The kicker is this—Max’s everything else is as or more valuable to the Miami Heat’s first unit than Duncan’s shooting is alone.
That also brings us to the Duncan Robinson of it all, as it isn’t just a singularly beneficial scenario if you’re being honest. Whereas the first unit defenders had been trained to key in on Duncan, both offensively and defensively, this move, sort of, allows Duncan to fall into place and even, get lost, among the defensive assignments of the opposition’s reserves.
Perhaps it’s simpler than that. They are reserves, meaning their defensive execution isn’t as sharp as starter-level guys, thus allowing Duncan more opportunity to be excellent at what he does.
Going a bit deeper, Duncan can also benefit from the attention maintained and the space that Tyler Herro provides with his isolation game. On the other side of that, Herro’s iso game can also benefit from the spacing that Robinson’s shooting can provide.
In theory, it’s a win-win scenario for everyone involved and the Miami Heat team as a whole. That’s also the way it has looked so far.
Now, the operative words there are, again, “so far”.